A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 034 – Corner

What Closely Followed Was Jiang Tian Telling Li Yu, “I’m Not Handing In Either.”

Sheng Wang did feel fantastic, Dean Xu nearly became a pufferfish from sheer anger.

What was even more infuriating was that as he was chugging down cold tea while rubbing his head, saying, “Now there’s three empty slots for the Tri-Quality nominations, other than Jiang Tian the #1 permanent resident, right?”
Jiang Tian replied to him with: “Nope, now all four slots are empty.”
Dean Xu choked on his tea, and nearly coughed his lungs out.

“Whatwasthatsaythatagain?” Dean Xu asked, glaring.
“We fought together, received the punishment together, but I’m the one who gets to keep the nomination while he loses it. It’s unfair.” Jiang Tian said.
“Am I the one who made him lose that?! Huh!” Big Mouth Xu was on the verge of eating someone alive.
Yet, after he gave it some careful thought, he realised to his dismay that in theory it really was him.
He sheepishly closed his mouth and touched his head. He was almost bald from fretting.

16-17 years old boys were proud and arrogant, they often acted emotionally, and would often attempt to seek their own ideas of justice on some strange issues. He could never understand it, and could never bring himself to agree. It was the same way that the vivacious youths in school would never understand his dignity in old age and experience, as well as his overcautiousness.

Some people could be convinced even across the chasm, some couldn’t.
Therefore, Big Mouth Xu chased all of them out as he slapped the table, and confidently declared, “There will be a time where you two brats will be crying in regret! I’ll be waiting!”

The third period in the morning was English. Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian were late for 10 minutes, but so was Yang Jing herself. The three of them entered the classroom together, the students in class didn’t think too much of it. They simply thought that Yang Jing just had a routine chat with them.
Gao Tianyang alone was much more perceptive.

He looked left and right before stealthily asking Sheng Wang: “What happened?”
“Hm?” Sheng Wang was digging out his notebook from his bag.
Gao Tianyang’s mouth twitched. “You, Tian-ge and Old Qi were called away one after another. You two are back now, but Old Qi’s seat is still empty. What happened?”

Sheng Wang looked up, took a cursory glance and lowered his head back to digging through his bag again. He replied with giving Gao Tianyang a meaningful look instead.
Gao Tianyang said: “No wait, what do you mean by blinking?”

“He means that you should be standing up.” Yang Jing’s clear voice came from the stage. She asked, “Gao Tianyang, are you tired from talking with your neck twisted up like this?”
Gao Tianyang was startled.

He hurriedly sat up straight and concentrated on the test paper in front of him, pretending that he was paying much attention. Unfortunately, Yang Jing did not let him off. She said, “You, stand up.”
Gao Tianyang kicked his chair aside and stood up without any protest. “Teacher, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, what should you be sorry for? I happened to be looking for someone to cooperate with me anyway. Didn’t you want to talk? Here’s your chance—” Yang Jing continued, “Today I’ll be summarising the situations in which the active voice is used to represent a passive event as well as the passive voice representing an active event and their meanings. List an example each for me, don’t even think about sitting down until you can list all of them.”
Gao Tianyang was going to die.
Sheng Wang couldn’t bear to see how pitiful he was, and brandished his notebook on the spot. He himself didn’t usually look through his notes most of the time in actuality, but whoever asked a question, he was always capable of instantly flipping to the corresponding page.
Not only did he flip to the precise page, he was accurate enough to the point of picking out the exact position. Which note was scribbled down in the top left corner, which one was in the bottom right corner, which was written with a red pen, which one was written with a blue pen. He had impressions of all of them.

He flipped to the summary of active and passive voice with a single turn, used his pen to draw a giant bracket, and passed it to Gao Tianyang under the table.
Gao Tianyang gave his good bro a thumbs up behind his back, and then he looked down at the book……
His good bro had a shitty handwriting and still had the nerve to write without lifting his pen off his paper, he could not read a single sentence.

“Let me tell you guys, you should come up to the platform when you have the chance to too, just once and you will understand. From this angle, I can see every single tiny movement you make down there.”
Yang Jing leisurely flipped through her teaching plan while propping her hands against her desk. “Trying to pass notes right under my nose? It’s alright, Gao Tianyang, read with all your might, if you can understand Sheng Wang’s dog scratch handwriting, I will let you sit down straight away, no questions.”

The entire class roared with laughter, Gao Tianyang even laughed along.
Sheng Wang pretended to be in deep thought via propping his head against his palm. Due to his extremely pale skin, the girls at the side could see that handsome face of his slowly turn red in high definition, and so there was yet another round of heckling.

Shit, misfortune out of nowhere.
Sheng Wang said internally.

“I heard the level gave you guys a nickname, the Three Bigshots of Class A English.” When Yang Jing said three big shots, there was a short pause in her words, disappointment briefly flashing across her face. She speedily recovered from it, and said, “Since you are all bigshots, can your handwriting please strive towards the one sitting behind you, ah? Sheng Wang?”
“Don’t play deaf.” Yang Jing refused to spare him.

Sheng Wang stood up unwillingly, and said with mixed feelings, “Understood, teacher.”
“A few days ago your language teacher was even telling me that if you are willing to practice your handwriting, you could probably get a few more marks.” Yang Jing said, “You thought the two points you lost were for your ugly handwriting? The deductions were made only when the person marking reached their last straws.”
“Ok.”
“Go back and work on your handwriting, got it? Don’t torture your teachers anymore.”
Another wave of the class pummeling their tables in laughter.

Sheng Wang replied with an “Mn”, his smile was full of resignation.
The phone in his bag abruptly vibrated, covered up by the hysterical laughter by the whole class. He was the only one who felt it.

He sat down, dug out his phone, gave it a quick sweep, and saw that said person sitting behind him in Yang Jing’s words sent him a message.
Jiang Tian: Zhao Xi is asking for us to join in for lunch.

Sheng Wang paused, and kept typing with his head down.
Shop’s Closed: when?
Jiang Tian: after class, noon
Shop’s Closed: their BBQ shop opens this early?
Jiang Tian: ……

A few seconds later, the other person directly replied with a screenshot from a chat.
In the screenshot, Zhao Xi sent his location over, set at the hotpot restaurant at the corner from Fuzhong’s north gate. He told Jiang Tian to get Sheng Wang to come along.

Shop’s Closed: that place is full of lines all day long, by the time it’s our turn, do we even need to do Old Wu’s 0.5h timed practice anymore?
Jiang Tian: they’re going first
Shop’s Closed: them?
Shop’s Closed: oh, the Lin guy is going too?
Jiang Tian: yeah

Shop’s Closed: the real and fake boss were both Fuzhong students?
Jiang Tian: Zhao is, Lin isn’t.
Sheng Wang thought of the scene in the office earlier. Zhao Xi was very familiar with Big Mouth Xu, Lin Beiting was much more polite.

Jiang Tian: saw the competition coaching timetable yet?
Shop’s Closed: yeah, there’s Zhao Xi
Jiang Tian: there’s also Lin Beiting

Sheng Wang was astonished, but he suddenly heard Yang Jing say, “Sheng Wang, what are you doing with your head down? Come save Gao Tianyang.”
His heart skipped a beat, and guiltily stood up after stuffing his phone into his back, pretending that he was paying attention. He didn’t even bother with taking his notebook, the moment he opened his mouth all sorts of scenarios in which the active and passive voice were used came out.

He looked at Yang Jing, internally saying, you may start praising me now.
However, in the very next second, he could already tell that there was something wrong with the mood. The whole class fell into an eerie silence. Just as he was confused over it, he heard Yang Jing say, “This part was already finished several minutes ago, were you listening?”
“……”
If there was a hole by the window, Sheng Wang would have leapt out.

Yang Jing shot him a glare, and called, “Jiang Tian, come save Sheng Wang.”
Sheng Wang heard a clatter from the chair at his back, the person behind him also stood up.
A few seconds of silence later, Jiang Tian’s voice rang behind him. “I wasn’t listening either.”

Commotion stirred in the entire class, the ones like Song Sirui who was unafraid to die already gave them a thumbs up, he turned around and mouthed: “Impressive! Suave! Hella thick nerves!”
Sheng Wang strangely felt like he was caught red handed, it was even a buy one get one free.

Thanks to the two bigshots, this English lesson became the most blissful English lesson Class A had ever experienced. Yang Jing got internal damage from her sheer anger at them, and didn’t bother calling on any other people anymore. Even Gao Tianyang was granted a special pardon and got to sit down.
The two of them were the only ones who stood up the entire lesson, one before the other.

*
The hotpot place at Fuzhong’s north gate was only open for a month, they took up the most popular spot in the area, and there were always long queues in the night market. It was slightly better at noon. They used northern style copper pots here, the smell wasn’t too strong, and there were also students and teachers from Fuzhong who sneaked out here for lunch during the noon break.

Zhao Xi and Lin Beiting were already waiting for them.
The two of them picked a seat near the second floor’s windows. After Sheng Wang sat down, he gave a brief glance at the view outside. He could see the unending stream of people by the crossroads.

“The change is pretty big.” Zhao Xi looked all over, and said to Lin Beiting, “Right?”
“Mn, there was barely anyone around back then.” Lin Beiting said.

“What?” Sheng Wang questioned.
“We’re speaking of this shop.” Zhao Xi pointed at the bottom of his feet. “When I was in high school, this storefront was a legendarily toxic spot, whoever came will have to shutter down for business eventually. There wasn’t anyone who could last more than three months. These two years, it somehow became lively, whoever opened their store here, whoever gets to roll in cash. It’s quite magical.”

Lin Beiting uncapped the drink and poured some into Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian’s cups, and opened a can of beer each for him and Zhao Xi. “Wasn’t this store still empty when we rented the store space?”
“Yup,” Zhao Xi said, “Both spots were open for rental back then.”

“Then why didn’t you rent this one?” Sheng Wang asked.
“Because we were aiming for the other storefront all along.” Zhao Xi grinned, and clinked his beer can against his cup, “When I went to school, there was also a BBQ store over there. The first time I met Lin-zi was over there, afterwards every time the groups gathered up to eat were all over there too.”

“I heard from Jiang Tian that Lin-ge wasn’t from Fuzhong?” Sheng Wang asked curiously.
“Yup,” Zhao Xi pointed in a random direction, “he’s from Yizhong, the ‘gang leader’ of Yizhong back then, right Lin-ge?”
He teasingly lifted his chin at Lin Beiting.

Speaking of gang leaders, Sheng Wang thought of Zhai Tao.
When Zhao Xi saw his expression he could already tell what he was thinking. He clarified in a hurry, “He wasn’t the type of gang leader with a questionable IQ, he was part of Yizhong’s competition class, his grades were fantastic and he was full of airs——”

As he spoke, he received a warning look from Lin Beiting, he laughed as he gave in. “Either ways, a lot of little girls were chasing after him, and so a lot of guys were jealous of him. Yizhong was much wilder than Fuzhong, every couple of days someone would come looking for a fight with him. You have to note, he’s also someone who couldn’t be arsed to chitchat, if words didn’t work he would just fight them. Thus, as he fought, he somehow became the gang leader of the legends.”

Lin Beiting used the perforated spoon to scoop something and dumped it in his bowl, saying, “You may stop now.”
“See, he did these things himself but he didn’t want to let anyone speak about it.” Zhao Xi’s personality was clearly the uncontrollable type, he was really getting into telling stories, nobody could stop him at all.

“Don’t tell me you and Lin-ge met because of a fight?” Sheng Wang guessed.
“Ay, smart.” Zhao Xi pointed at Lin Beiting: “The two of us were both participating in an Olympiad, was it chem or physics, I can’t remember. The preliminary exam was in Fuzhong, after the exam I came with a bunch of people here to the BBQ store for skewers, he was dragged here by a few classmates. Then the few idiot classmates of his drank too much, and insisted on fighting with Fuzhong to see who’s better, and they got into a disagreement. What did they say after that again?”

He looked toward Lin Beiting, having forgotten some of the details from years ago.
Lin Beiting side-eyed him, and said, exasperatedly, “I forgot. Either way, you all were already fighting by the time I came back from the washroom, you threw a punch at me without even looking.”

Zhao Xi laughed with a cup in his hands, “How was I supposed to know, everyone who wasn’t in Fuzhong’s uniform were all opponents, that’s all.”
Lin Beiting shook his head.

Sheng Wang could roughly tell at this point that just from the way Zhao Xi acted alone, he was probably a tyrant himself in school back then. After all, it takes two hands to clap.
“Then you became friends after a fight?” He asked.
“Of course not.” Lin Beiting said, “We fought at least ten rounds, and finally reluctantly made peace in the end.”
Zhao Xi: “Due to our decent results for the physics Olympiads, we entered the province team, and stayed in the same dorm. Afterwards we mysteriously became on good terms.”

“Then you entered the same uni?” Sheng Wang felt like he could imagine an entire trajectory himself.
Contrary to expectations, Zhao Xi gave a quiet laugh with his eyes downcasted. “Nope, we didn’t go to the same uni, for a few years we didn’t really stay in contact either. It’s only later that we both went overseas by fate, and got in contact again. A while ago the two of us returned one after another, and happened to hear that that storefront was open for rental. We decided to take over, run a BBQ store, and reminisce about our dumbass teenage lives back then.

He spoke with a flavour of carelessness, as if everything was just for fun. Sheng Wang felt that the two of them were quite cool for some reason.

“When I heard you rejecting that prize today in the office, I felt that your temper matched up to my taste very well.” Zhao Xi pointed at Sheng Wang, and said to Jiang Tian, “You, however, gave me a scare.”
“Why?” Jiang Tian rarely cut in earlier, he probably already knew about the past Zhao Xi was talking about. Now that he was called on by Zhao Xi, he finally looked up.

“You looked like you lack that youthful vigour all the time, I thought you’ll put more consideration into this.” Zhao Xi took a large swig of his beer, “tsked”, and refuted himself, “But yeah, I remembered you kiddo back then because I felt that you were especially proud. You were so quiet usually, I nearly forgot.”
Jiang Tian drank an iced drink with a frosty look on his face, bringing Zhao Xi some mirth.

Sheng Wang gave it a little thought and said, “I figured that you will think that we are rash and idiotic.”
Zhao Xi laughed for a long while. “Nah, I won’t. After all, I’ve tried similar things back then. Rationality speaking, it was quite stupid, there will be a lot of people telling you that you wil regret it in the future.”
Sheng Wang asked: “Then did you regret anything?”
Zhao Xi said: “Do I look regretful to you?”
Sheng Wang started laughing along. He really liked these two people now.

“I only know to do whatever you want to do at whatever age you are. If you don’t go wild when you ought to go wild, you are probably more likely to regret not doing anything.” He said, “There will be decades in the future for you to be overcautious, why the rush?”

Sheng Wang’s thumb wiped away the condensation on the glass cup, from the corner of his eyes, he saw Jiang Tian retract his gaze from outside the window. His eyes were lowered, zoning out a little. Who knew what was going on in his mind.
The crowd at the crossroads was at its peak for the noon, the stream of people flowed endlessly, unending they came, unending they went.

*
Qi Jiahao only returned to class during the long break this afternoon. His head was lowered all the way, refusing to speak to anyone at all.
He was probably terrified that Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian would spread the incident to everyone in class. He was freaking out for the entire break, occasionally shooting a glance at the back of the class.
Yet, Sheng Wang had zero time to even think about him at all, because the class monitor, Li Yu, came to carry out her responsibilities with a form in hand again.

She hesitated before Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian’s desks, saying, “Um, the application for dorms is ending soon, are you two still submitting the form?”
This question was more like a reminder. The previous second Sheng Wang was still laughing from Gao Tianyang’s clownery, the next he stopped smiling.

He questioned before he quickly reacted. He drank a mouthful of water and apologised to Li Yu with all smiles, “I’m not submitting it anymore, go ahead and ask other people already.”

Li Yu silently looked at the “other people” behind Sheng Wang.

Sheng Wang casually whipped out a book from his desk, and flipped through it with his head down, his feet on the bar under the table. He flipped through four pages before he realised that he was looking at the physics notes that he had long since finished studying.
His finger paused, and quietly drooped.

What closely followed was Jiang Tian telling Li Yu, “I’m not handing in either.”

When was it that Li Yu left, Sheng Wang had no clue at all. He only recalled that when he came back to himself, he felt the person behind him tap on his back with a pen.
He leaned backwards on reflex, his back touching the table.

Next, he heard Jiang Tian ask him behind his ears, “When is the shop reopening?”

TO BE CONTINUED.